Events

I owe you a post or two (or three) about my absence and now my come-back, but first, let’s talk about something awesome. My book loot from the National Book Store Book Binge Bazaar!

I hoard books, so naturally, I eagerly awaited for the Book Binge Bazaar after I first heard of it on Facebook. Even though there’s a growing pile of unread books on my shelf! Because why not, books don’t have an expiration date heehee.

Imagine how thrilled I was to receive an email from NBS, inviting me to a special preview of the bazaar. Because of my excitement, I made sure to come as early as I can (8:30 am call time); I even think I was one of the first bloggers/ media people inside the venue. I literally said “wow” when I ente red the function hall. So many books! I was so blown away by the selection that I had trouble — only at first — figuring out where to start.

It feels good to be back <3

Because it’s almost Christmas, I set my mind on prioritizing buying gifts for inaanaks and Yuri’s friends. I made a beeline toward the kids’ section where — surprise, surprise! — almost everything was priced at P75!

Christmas came early for me, too. Thank you so much, National Book Store!

I spent the entire time browsing every single section, savoring the peace and quiet before the mall officially opens. I want to show you every single book that you can find there, but that’s impossible, so here are some pictures of some of the books you can see at the Book Binge Bazaar.

There’s no shortage of great reads and bestselling authors, I promise! Continue Reading

National Book Store is bringing its Book Binge Bazaar to Davao City for the first time. Thousands of books will be available for as low as P75. It’s happening at Function Room 1, SMX Davao, 3rd Level, SM Lanang Premier, from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM on October 25, 26, 27, and 28, 2018.

Books will be available at five price points: P75, P125, P175, P275, and P375. The Book Binge Bazaar is the best place to stock up on great reads with great prices!

Fill your shelves with bestselling young adult titles, like Rick Riordan’s The Heroes of Olympus. Choose from a vast selection of fiction novels and inspiring reads.

Admission is free. Join the discussion online and share your hauls by using the hashtag #BookBingeBazaar. Connect with National Book Store on social media – @nationalbookstore on Instagram and @nbsalert on Facebook and Twitter.

I have been dropping by Expo Mom bazaars ever since they had their first one here in Davao back in 2014. (Here’s a link from my old blog!) Also another one from 2016. Apparently, I missed the 2015 leg, and while I was able to visit last year, I don’t think I was able to write about it.

Back in 2014, Yuri was just 2 years old and I was a very excited young mom. During the first Expo Mom Davao, I recall that there were not as many booths and sellers as there are now. However, I was still able to buy a few things for Yuri (because I was admittedly a shopaholic then hehe), including Human Nature stuff because they were not locally available during that time, a “Cool Science Experiments” book which is really cool, a Kiele bug repellent, and Oreo butter!

Then in 2016, I bought even more mosquito repellent products (teehee), books, castor oil, and chocolates.

This year, I was invited by the Mommy Mundo team to drop by the Expo Mom Davao 2018, which is great because I was really planning on going. Woot!

With my Motts-loving first-grader! <3

What I noticed is that it seems like more booths participate every year — awesome! But Yuri is already 6 years old now and I saw that most of the booths do cater to babies and toddlers. It is not a bad thing of course since there are always babies, toddlers, and expectant mommies around, but I have to admit that maybe we’re not the target audience of these expos anymore! Unless, of course, new older kid-oriented vendors decide to join next year 😉

#Mompowerment!

But I’m not complaining! I still had a grand time looking around the Expo Mom. Here were the things that caught my eye!

As for me, all I bought were a tub of honey and a bottle of calamansi concentrate, but I’m happy with my finds! ^_^

In comparison to the previous years, I think there were more breastfeeding-friendly products and supplements available during this year’s Expo Mom. Regular vendors like Sun Life and Sanicare were still there; there were also the usual *adorbs* baby and toddler clothes, coco sugar/honey/cacao/calamansi products, feeding products, beauty products, and *gasp* pretty accessories. I also saw experience-oriented services like baby photography and a mobile playpen, which looked really interesting!

Conversely, I think there were fewer educational books and toys this time around (like I said, most booths were baby and toddler-targeted). While there were still food products available, I saw a lack of ready-to-eat food like the ice cream from last year and the chocolates from the other year. There were cookies sold but were especially made for lactating women — which I am obviously not LOL.

With that said, there are still plenty of reasons to check out Expo Mom! If you’re pregnant, breastfeeding, have a baby, or a toddler, there are LOTS of amazing finds for you right there. And even if you’re a mom with a “big” kid like me, there’s always something nice to see and buy at the expo.

If you missed this year’s expo, absolutely make sure to drop by next year!

Cafe Andessa is one of my favorite local restaurants. Aside from being one of the restaurants closest to our suburb (read: mountains lol), I love the ambience and their food is always delicious!

But it’s only late last year when I discovered that they can be exclusively booked for events and private dinners. We were invited by our clients (in real estate), and I made it a mini-mission to know how much they charge for exclusive bookings. Of course, I promptly forgot about inquiring until it was almost Yuri’s birthday. We actually booked the place just a week before our desired date. Good thing they were still available!

Aside from Yuri’s birthday, we were also celebrating his Moving Up and my sister’s Moving Up, which is why we chose to have the celebration on the 28th (the day of my sister’s Moving Up). Also, it was the day before the long weekend, which was ideal.

Let me tell you upfront that I am very very satisfied with Cafe Andessa! But before I explain why, here are some pictures of the event. First, the OOTDs taken at home! Hihi pagbigyan na

And the photos taken at Cafe Andessa. I really reaaaally regret not being able to take a lot of pictures. I don’t even have a single picture of the dishes! But these were on our menu: chicken pastel pie, beef caldereta, sweet and sour fish, spaghetti, fried suman, fresh fruits, and pineapple-orange juice.

We had so much fun that evening, and I can say that our guests — both the kids and the adults — had a great time, too. We prepared silly games, guessing games, which was kinda hard because of the venue’s limited space. But we were able to do it, much thanks to Cafe Andessa’s superb customer service. Here’s my verdict!

Location

As of now, though you can easily reach the restaurant by commuting, its location is still a bit hidden. However, it’s right in front of the new Gaisano Mall that’s currently being built, so once the mall’s done, it wouldn’t be so hidden anymore! Parking is okay; there is enough space for several cars.

Price

When you book the place exclusively for your event, you have two options. First is booking the entire place and second is booking half the place. In order to book the entire place — which we did — they are asking for a minimum headcount of 45 pax. I’m not sure whether they count the kids or not, but I counted the kids on my guest list just to be on the safe side.

I’ll let you in on the price. It’s just P250 per head! It’s very sulit given these inclusions: use of the place for 4 hours, 3 viands, 1 vegetable/noodle dish, dessert, and unlimited drinks. I’ll discuss the food next.

Food

The primary reason why Cafe Andessa was on top of our choices was the food. Their food is always so delicious, authentic, and they don’t scrimp at all on ingredients. When we inquired, we were surprised at the amount of food included given the low price. Other restaurants charge much higher for less food!

It’s already a given that their food is yummy, so I wasn’t surprised when our guests went back for seconds, thirds, even fourths. But the biggest pleasant surprise was the serving. When we got there, there were already warmers for each dish. I thought that was it. As the night went by, I noticed that they kept on refilling each warmer. Super sulit!

And that’s not all. When we were getting ready to leave, the waiter immediately packed all the food left from dinner. I thought that was it (are you noticing a pattern now?), but the manager told us to wait for a while as they’re still packing the food from the kitchen that wasn’t served. What, meron pa?! We went home with so much food that we had to distribute most of it to our other guests who remained. Super duper sulit!

I only got to take a picture of the buffet table huhu

Unfortunately, I don’t have a single photo of the cuisine because I was very busy jumping from table to table. I don’t think the other guests were also able to take a photo.

Customer Service

As if my rave about their food and pricing is still not enough, I will add one more thing. The staff from Cafe Andessa is one of the most pleasant, polite, and approachable restaurant staff I’ve ever talked to. They’re really easy to talk to and was okay with most of our requests (nothing outrageous!). I called the manager a couple of times before the event and was never unpleasant or unprofessional.

During the night itself, they were very accommodating to us and all our guests and we never felt intimidated. Plus, they didn’t even have to tell us that there was still food left in the kitchen because, in the first place, we never even considered that there are still leftovers after all those refills. But they did! So thank you because the leftovers served as our food for the next couple of days LOL!

So do I recommend Cafe Andessa? If it’s not yet obvious, I very highly recommend them! The price is very reasonable (it was actually unbelievable IMO), the food is absolutely delicious, and you will be met by the kindest staff. If you’re planning on hosting a dinner and live somewhere near the north of Davao City, consider Cafe Andessa!

There honestly wasn’t anything special planned for the day because his birthday celebration was already scheduled for Wednesday, the 28th. I had the day off so we were just planning on playing with his new gifts from his Tito and Tita and a new bike from his dad and me.

By mid-morning, we realized we needed to go back to the grocery to buy some more supplies and loot bags for the party. So we went to Gaisano Mall, where there were a lot of cheap party supplies.

Imagine our surprise when we saw that there were a lot of firefighters in the atrium. Actually, the thing that caught my eye was this!

Grabbed from the BFP Davao Facebook page

A mini rappelling station! Needless to say, we were thrilled to join the event and abandoned the mission to go to the grocery. Thank you mother for volunteering to get the supplies hihi. In my defense, she was the one who thought we should let Yuri attend this one-day event instead. Which just happened to fall on Yuri’s birthday. What a happy coincidence!

There were 6 stations to complete, and once a child completes all stations, they can get a prize. Awesome! I’m not even ashamed to say we spent 3 hours in the atrium for this. I’ll show you each station through pictures.

Coloring Area

First, we went to this area where other kids were coloring the materials given by the BFP. Yuri only colored a couple of pages (not a fan of coloring…) and we proceeded to the next station.

1st Station – Education

In this station, they showed the kids the different equipment and tools used for firefighting. I took photos of the different equipment, but they’re too many to attach here!

Red Cross Station – Rescue

Yuri was so excited to try this one! He almost stumbled upon one of the ropes on the floor hehe. After pretending to be rescued, he then pretended to help rescue another kid.

2nd Station – Firefighting

It’s not clear in the picture, but there was water coming out of the fire extinguisher. The goal was to put out the “fire” in the burning houses. What a creative way to teach!

3rd Station: First Aid (Bandaging)

One of Yuri’s proudest moments (and mine as well lol!) happened in this station. Out of his “batch” of kids (obviously except the kuya of the younger kid beside Yuri), only he was able to tie the bandage. The BFP personnel even asked him to do it twice, and he did it. Good job, Yuri!

Funny because as soon as the other parents who were next in line saw this, they immediately started teaching their kids how to tie a knot. At that moment, I was so glad Yuri wears bathrobes that need tying!

Tying a simple knot, like buttoning, is a life skill, guys! Don’t forget to teach your kids this!

4th Station: First Aid (CPR)

Yuri had so much fun doing CPR, complete with hand compression (proper hand placement, too) and rescue breaths. He wanted to try it on me when we got home. I saw how “vigorously” he had done it on the dummy, so I had to say no lol!

5th Station: Knot Tying

While Yuri knows how to tie a knot, he had difficulty managing the thick ropes provided, so I had to step in and help him. We need to practice, but we haven’t got ropes at home?

6th Station: Rappelling

This was the most popular station in the Fire Square, for obvious reasons! By the time we reached this station, there was already a long queue of kids. Still, we patiently waited for our turn. I asked him if he was afraid, and he said no. Yuri was so thrilled when it was finally his turn to rappel! Too bad he was wearing Crocs, which were slippery, but for a first-timer, he did quite alright IMO. He wants to do it again!

Both of us learned a lot — and I was at my peek stage mom mode. Hey, I’ve never “rescued” someone before using real Red Cross equipment. I’ve never given someone (even a dummy) CPR and I have certainly never rappelled before! Yet my kid who just turned 6 did it all!

It’s a shame that it was just a 1-day event. I know a lot of other kids would love to join the Fire Square, too!

Happy new year, everyone! My 11-day holiday break is finally coming to an end! Here are the things I planned to do but, of course, didn’t:

Write a year’s worth of blogs

Update my blog’s look

Plan a new morning routine for 2018

Take pictures of the clothes I’m no longer wearing and sell them

Take Yuri on a date or do science experiments

Update the look of my home office

Lose 15 pounds

Perhaps I don’t need to say that I feel like a failure lol. But I am trying to be kinder to myself, to realize that while I am not able to do everything I think I need to do, I am still trying. That I’m only a failure when I stop trying.

Before I proceed, let me say thank you to the best bosses in the world for giving us a long break! Please visit our website: Stay At Home Mum.

It’s true that I could have done so much more during my vacation. I could have done science experiments with my son, rearranged the furniture, tried new recipes, become a real estate superstar… I could have rested more and watched an entire KDrama or two!

By the way, I wasn’t even able to write about our Christmas celebration. To be fair, because of our hectic schedules, we didn’t go all out on decor this year. Only your standard Christmas tree and Christmas ornaments on our shelves. No lights because they take effort to put up and even more effort to take down hehe. We also didn’t have a formal sit-down Noche Buena. Instead, we had a street party with our friends and neighbours.

At our Christmas street party, wearing my new Ever Bilena Toast of New York lippie hehe and the matching shirts our neighbors/friends worked on

What we lacked in decor and formalities though, we made up for gifts. I saved up a bit before Christmas and spent it all on gifts and Christmas stuff. For someone like me whose love language is gifts, Christmas truly is a special season. Yuri had the lion’s share of the presents, of course. Kids do have the best Christmases! I received a few gifts myself, both from friends and family. Thank you! Continue Reading

I can’t believe there are only four days left before school starts again!

I speak for myself, of course. For Yuri, Monday couldn’t come soon enough; he misses his classmates even though there’s not a day when he’s not playing outside with our neighbours.

How did you spend your long holiday, by the way? I didn’t experience a long weekend like most of you guys. Though I get to have two holidays this week, I have a broken schedule (instead of October 31 and November 1, my holidays are October 31 and November 2). I organized our team’s schedule myself and because this week is a busy week, instead of all of us taking the same days off, I alternated the schedules.

Anyway, I’m rambling. Here’s how our Trick or Treating went!

Trick or Treat 2017

Preparing treats for the kids. Decided to keep the imported chocolates for our friends lol

I usually avoid the malls like the plague when it’s Trick or Treating season. I personally do not have the patience — I’m only willing to deal with crowds when there’s a good sale lol. So I’m thankful our village holds its own Halloween Party and Trick or Treat for the kids (and feeling kids). We’re just a small village with less than 100 occupied houses so there’s only at most 25-30 kids racing for candy. And a village is much bigger than a mall so I don’t feel claustrophobic… Continue Reading

I’ve written a lot about Halloween in the past and why we still choose to join our village’s Trick or Treat despite our Christian beliefs. In a nutshell, we join our village’s celebration because it is our tradition, we want to be involved in activities that strengthen us as a community, and it’s a chance to show our creative side.

Also, there’s another thing I’ve been thinking about. It’s something personal. Let’s just say we’re making the most out of our time here in this village.

Now that I’ve gotten it out of the way, I’ll show you how we’re preparing for Halloween this year! It’s not complete because we’re bound to buy more stuff this week but I’m just going to show you what we have initially.

(Apologies again for the badly taken pictures. I was hurriedly taking them while Yuri and I were studying Math…)

Decor

I’m quite fortunate because I live in Davao City and Ninoy Aquino Day fell right after the Kadayawan holiday, making our local holiday 4 days long! I didn’t get a 4-day weekend though because I worked last Friday (I had my holiday last Thursday instead because I need to make our weekly newsletter every Friday). But it was still great because no school = more time to rest!

I wasn’t able to take part in any festivities because it’s been a busy weekend. My entire Saturday was spent doing real estate broker duties, while Sunday was for school-mom duties. It’s the General Assembly at Yuri’s school and we did groceries after. I also spent some time training our new helper (Lord, thank you!).

But I was able to go visit SM Ecoland’s yearly Agricultural Trade Fair and see a lot of nice flora. As mentioned in my last post, I was also able to fit in going to Miniso and did a little shopping! Honestly, I don’t have a green thumb so I just wen along while my mother looked for succulents (her new “project”) and my older brother looked for bonsai stuff. However, I came to appreciate just how pretty succulents are! Look at these:

I’m sure they’ve been gaining popularity because more people are living in apartments and condominiums and even houses without a lot of space for a garden. With succulents, space and soil is not a problem. You don’t even need to water them often! I don’t have budget for plants (as I’m in tipid and ipon mode) but I’ll probably get succulents if gardening ever appeals to me.

I wanted to get a lemon tree for myself but I’m afraid I’d just kill it

Also, I found a little free time last Sunday and changed my header again teehee. How do you like it? I wasn’t actually planning on changing my header. However, while browsing the internet, I found this cute, free (with attribution) watercolor vector of a boy jumping on a trampoline. Yuri plays on the trampoline (our neighbor’s, hehe) virtually everyday so it fits him! He’s a very active boy and afternoons are filled with play and ~mess~ so I think it just fits my blog to a T. What do you think?

It’s been a full month since Yuri’s party! And I have a looot of drafts in my backlog. #mustfindtimetoblog

Anyway…

I can’t believe I already have a 5-year old!

Wasn’t it just yesterday when I had a semi-permanently attached baby to my boobies?!

Yuri’s real birthday was on March 26, but we were scheduled to be out of town on that date so his birthday celebration was held a week earlier. It was a truly intimate party (yes, a McDonald’s party can be intimate because they only require a minimum of 10 people!) where I invited people close to us. Continue Reading

Liza Soberano and Enrique Gil, who are both Ajinomoto endorsers, also graced the event to provide encouragement for all the student-competitors and kicked-off the event’s highly anticipated awarding ceremony.

St. Dominic College of Asia is the Umami Bowl Champion of the 2017 Ajinomoto® Umami Culinary Challenge.

The Grand Prize winners for the Ajinomoto® UCC’s National Culinary Showdown came from VIZMIN: University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines from Cagayan de Oro for the Best Filipino Umami Dish Category and University of St. La Salle – Bacolod for the My Own Umami Creation Category. Each school received PhP 15,000.00 in cash, medals and certificates.

The National Cooking Showdown Champion for Best Filipino Umami Dish is University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines

For the Luzon culinary competitions the big winners were Perpetual Help College –Manila, Chiang Kai Shek College and Polytechnic University of the Philippines. The Umami Bowl Award and PhP 50,000-worth of kitchen appliances were bagged by St. Dominic College of Asia for receiving the highest accumulated score in major categories.

Luzon’s first place winner for My Own Umami Creation is Chiang Kai Shek College

The Ajinomoto® UCC is an annual inter-school culinary competition that started in the year 2009. This event provides a training ground for future chefs and nutrition professionals to enhance their cooking skills and nutrition awareness.

A spread of umami or delicious food

It is part of Ajinomoto’s “Eat Well, Live Well.®” advocacy to promote the benefit of umami taste in preparing deliciously nourishing recipes. The panel of judges is composed of Food and Nutrition luminaries invited to offer valuable insights to student-competitors on how to apply culinary skills and nutrition knowledge in the creation of nourishing umami dishes. This event is presented by AJINOMOTO PHILIPPINES CORPORATION in partnership with La Germania, Solane, Masflex, Fujidenzo and Anvil Publishing, Inc.

All the bloggers and members of the media who attended the fair’s media preview went home with a handful of bags containing gifts from the generous sponsors and the awesome peops from National Bookstore themselves. Here’s mine!

I had to go somewhere so I wasn’t able to open the bags and explore the gifts until later that evening. When I got home, though, I noticed that the bags have been re-arranged. Someone at home obviously had fun looking at the supplies inside (I’m not the only stationery junkie at home!).

Had to return the stuff to their original bags to take this picture LOL! (Look, I have a photobomber!)

Uni

One of my absolute favourite stores in the world is National Bookstore.

It’s a no-brainer. I love books, pens, notebooks, stationery, school supplies, art supplies, even office supplies like staplers and tape dispensers. Where else to go but NBS? Nothing compares.

When I first knew about National Bookstore’s Color and Calligraphy fair, I was sure I was going to be there. I was already salivating at the thought of all the art and calligraphy supplies. I would figuratively drown in 0.5 tips and brush tips and at least 150 gsm paper. What got me jumping up and down, though, was an invitation to be part of their media preview. Oh, National Bookstore, you don’t need to tell me twice!

I got to Abreeza a few minutes after it opened, but at the atrium, where the Color and Calligraphy fair was happening, people were already milling around. I noticed teenagers and young kids examining the booths and claiming some spots in the art tables. Nice one, kids! I myself felt like I was in an art heaven of some sort. I think all the art supplies you will possibly need were there!

This is going to be a two-part post. For this part, I’ll give you a virtual tour of what I saw in the Color and Calligraphy fair. Prepare for picture overload! Continue Reading

I admit that I had much more fun browsing the items on sale during last year.

I would say that the products sold by the booths last year were much more interesting than the ones on display this year, but maybe that’s just me and my hobbies speaking. You see, while I love dressing up, I don’t really get excited about hangers and piles of clothes. And shoes. And bags. And makeup. Don’t get me wrong; I love all of those things just as much as the next girl, but come on, I see all of those in malls and online stores everyday.

When I visit bazaars, I expect to discover unique knick-knacks, browse hobby stores and stores that offer products we don’t often see in malls and boutiques, sample locally made food products… So I was quite disappointed with this year’s bazaar’s lack of those things.

However, I did not come home empty-handed. Okay, I almost never come home empty-handed from whatever, but yeah, you get the point. I did find stuff that sparked my interest and even discovered things that I’ll surely buy again (totally saving those business cards, guys!). Here are my finds from the Christmas Bazaar 2016. Continue Reading

This year’s Christmas bazaar is no exemption. Since the bazaar will be there until Sunday (November 30 was the first day), and we went yesterday (where there was a huge downpour!), here’s a quick post about what you can expect from it. This is by no means an extensive description of the entire bazaar. Instead, here are pictures of booths and stalls that caught my eye.